The Chen style (陳氏) is considered to be the senior branch of the five T'ai Chi Ch'uan family styles and the third in terms of popularity. The Chen style today is known for its low postures and vigorous Hawaiian State Grappling Championships. Martial arts, also known as fighting systems, are bodies of codified practices or traditions of unarmed and armed combat, usually without the use of guns and other modern weapons. People study martial arts for various reasons including fitness, getting rid of aggressions, mental/character development, and... martial art training. While there are many hundreds of schools teaching T'ai Chi Ch'uan around the world, the family styles are said to go the farthest in maintaining the "old-fashioned" style of teaching that has been normative for T'ai Chi Ch'uan instruction for most of its history. Historically documented from the 1600s, the Chen family originates in Chenjiagou in Wen County, Not to be confused with the unrelated provinces of Hainan and Hunan Henan (Chinese: 河南; pinyin: Hénán; Wade-Giles: Ho-nan), is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is 豫 (pinyin: y... Henan Province.(溫縣陳家溝). Their best known teacher was Chen Changxing (陳長興 Chén Chángxīng) (1771-1853). Chen Changxing started teaching the famous Yang Luchan in 1820 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). Events January 1 - Constitutionalist military insurrection at Cádiz leads to summoning of Spanish parliament ( March 7) and restoration of 1812 Constitution ( March 8) by king Ferdinand VII. January 28 - Russian expedition lead by Fabian Gottlieb von... 1820. Yang went on to found the Yang style T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Chen Changxing is also traditionally associated with a teacher known as Jiang Fa (蔣發 Jiǎng Fā), although it is no longer clear if their relationship was a teacher/student one (or even who was senior) or if they were colleagues. Some traditions teach that a disciple of Zhang Sanfeng was a semi-mythical Chinese Taoist immortal said variously to date from either the late Song dynasty, Yuan dynasty or Ming dynasty. His name was allegedly 張君寶 before he became a Taoist. His Taoist name in Traditional Chinese characters is 張三丰, but is usually... Zhang Sanfeng named Wang Zongyue (王宗岳) taught the martial art later to be known as T'ai Chi Ch'uan to the Chen family, but this cannot be confirmed. On the other hand, some in the Chen family claim that it was Wang who learned T'ai Chi Ch'uan from them. Chen style has become well recognized internationally in recent years, due mostly to the efforts of Chen Fake (陳發科, 1887-1957), who taught for many years in Beijing  listen? ( Chinese: 北京; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; ; Postal System Pinyin: Peking), is the capital city of the Peoples Republic of China. Beijing is one of the 4 municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China, which have a provincial-level status, and is under... Beijing. Many direct descendants of the Chen family are still teaching T'ai Chi Ch'uan around the world.

There is a relatively well known variant of the Chen style known as Zhaobao style T'ai Chi Ch'uan - He style (赵堡 - 和式).

External links

• American Chen Style Tai Chi Association (http://www.americanchentaichi.com/) to promote the Original Large Frame Chen Style Tai Chi Chuan
• Pennsylvania Chen Taijiquan Association (http://www.pacta.homestead.com) - info on history, small frame masters, big frame masters